French style snacks

Snacks in France, these are not just dishes that precede dinner. Snacks are a must-have for a French aperitif.

And an aperitif is not only a weak alcoholic drink that stimulates the appetite. This is a delicious meal, and an excellent opportunity to socialize.

The roots of this tradition go back to the beginning of the last century, at Belle Epoque, when an aperitif became a separate occasion for meeting friends or business partners.

Whether at home or in a cafe, a little alcohol before lunch or dinner was supposed to liberate the guests and improve their appetite.

It is believed that on time and properly adopted aperitif eliminates problems with digestion.

There are no strict rules for organizing an aperitif, so feel free to trust your taste.

You can also serve an aperitif of Lorraine or Alsatian pie, homemade bread, cheese plate, tartlets with various fillings, sandwiches, sandwiches, tartinki and canapes, salads, pies, sausages, seafood, vegetables and much more.

Pate — traditional French snack. Typically, the pates are made from the liver of chicken, duck, turkey, as well as pork or calf liver and different types of meat (ideally — wild boar, roe deer, rabbit, but beef or pork will do). Liver poultry perfectly with fruits and berries — and sweet, and sour, and sour-sweet, but in no case with cranberries.

But apples, raspberries, blackberries — raw or slightly dipped in butter — will give the dish an exotic and festive look and taste.

Mushrooms, cheese, vegetables, and greens are often put in the pate.

To taste the pate was more tender, add alcohol to it — brandy, nutmeg wine.

Terrine, A type of pate popular in France is a casserole of finely chopped minced meat (meat, vegetable, fish) laid out in several layers, filled with jelly. The preparation of a terrine requires precise recipe and thoroughness.

If you dry the terrine insufficiently before pouring the jelly, unappetizing white spots will appear on the finished dish.

Despite the name, Julien This is not exactly a French dish, although it has a direct relationship to France. In French cooking, this word means a method of cutting young vegetables into thin straws, as well as dishes into which these finely chopped vegetables include, for example, Julien soup, Julien salad.

But since all the ingredients are familiar to us Julien, i.e. the mushrooms baked in the sauce are also cut into thin strips, and this dish is rightly called julienne.

In Julienne add meat, chicken, fish, shrimp, tongue, ham.

You can cook julienne and without meat — only with mushrooms.

Onion is a must-have ingredient in julienne. As a fill, you can use sour cream, thickened with egg or flour, or bechamel sauce. They serve julienne in portioned cocottes, in which he was baked.

Sprinkle it with grated cheese on top.

Tartarus — Another popular snack — appeared in the XIX century.

Then, in French cuisine, fashion was common to imitate the cuisines of different nations with the help of sauces, which, according to chefs, corresponded most to foreign tastes.

A sauce was created for the kitchen of Tatars living far to the east — on the basis of mayonnaise, so beloved by the French, to which pickles, capers, lime or lemon juice, gherkins, sliced ​​onions, and black pepper were added.

This sauce is served with sea and river fish, better fried, it goes well with salmon, trout, sturgeon, cod, haddock, pike perch. Tartar is also called dishes of finely chopped raw meat or fish. Steak tartare steak in Tatar style steak, meat cutlet surrounded by all the components of tartar sauce, has firmly entered the menu of restaurants. In addition, there are many dishes where there is neither tartar sauce, nor raw meat, but all of this is also tartar — a finely chopped composition of various products, accompanied by a spicy sauce.

There are even dessert fruit tartars.

Tapenad — This is a olive seasoning, which is served for appetizer spread on toasts, crackers or sliced ​​raw vegetables. The composition of tapenade includes capers, fresh anchovies, olives.

Often finely chopped tuna, mustard, garlic and cumin and other spices are added to the tapenade.